DIY Ice Fishing Pole

After going ice fishing with my Dad, I had seen that some of his poles had been glued together. He explained that these were his broken poles from over the years, salvaged for ice fishing. Hearing this made me think of my broken pole that I was sure I had thrown into the trash.

This fall, I loaned one of my cheap fishing poles to my cousin for a halloween costume. Not too suprisingly, when the pole was returned the lower half had been cracked as to not be cast-able anymore. The cork handle and top of the pole were still intact and entirely functional. I assumed that I had thrown it away, but as I was cleaning my house one day, I lifted a couch and VOILA!

My new ice fishing pole.

It was incredibly easy to make the conversion, I used a few common tools and writing this article has taken longer and required more thinking than making the pole!

What I used:

Adhesive (superglue)
Hacksaw (with masonry blade, but any saw should do the job)
Sandpaper - 250 grit aluminum carbide
Time

Taking the hacksaw, I cut the pole about 4" above the cork grip. I didn't want to cut it too short the first time, and I think it should be more stable with a few inches of overlap between the poles. My Dad's poles were cut right above the cork grip, so anything in between should work as well.

The cut left some nasty little metal and graphite things sticking out that were too sharp and dangerous. The sandpaper smoothed these out quickly.

I put adhesive inside the handle, where the upper pole would go. The upper pole fit inside the handle with about 2mm of extra space around it, just perfect to be filled with adhesive. I put as much adhesive as I could inside, and pushed the upper pole in until it fit snugly against one of the bulging wrappers for an eyelet.

I made sure to align the eyes to the correct position with respect to where the reel would go, and set it aside to cure.

My Electric Organ Donor

I've got a habit. When I have some free time, the mouse on my computer just slips over to that craigslist thumbnail, and right into the "free" section. What brings me to these postings is a simple, pure fact based on perception. People perceive trash differently. Some people consider everything unwanted to be trash, and there are others who consider everything to have its own intrinsic value, and may place extreme value on these same items. Of course, these are two opposite ends of the spectrum.

Things (too materialistic?) I have found in the trash(or just plain unwanted):

   A large, beautiful oil painting, that now hangs above my bed...

   My snowboard, bindings, boots, and snow pants...

   Food (ramen and yams that sustained me for a week)...
   Alcohol (I have no shame in pulling unopened beers from dumpsters, I do have shame in drinking them before I wash it off)...
   A Guitar...
   And so much more.

And now, an electric organ!

Terry, the man that I met off of craigslist about this free organ, gets contracted to clean out rental houses before the next tenant moves in. What a job! He had salvaged this organ from a house (of apparently religious people, due to the bible hymn sheet music) and gave it away for free. It is in excellent condition, and has noting at all wrong with it. I gave him all of the cash in my wallet, which was about $5 (in singles, too), and I call that a GREAT deal for an organ.

UPDATE: I've recently looked around at CL's for other cities, and have noticed that most other cities only have one or two items a day, and usually they are misplaced classified ads. Boulder must have a) a large upper class that can afford to donate or b) like-minded people who want to recycle and avoid the landfills. Maybe its both, but it is definitively different

A little bit of varnish chipping below the keys, but nothing else is wrong with it.


*EDIT*
I sold my organ to my neighbor for $50. It was quite the enjoyable item to have in the house, however.